An eye hospital has admitted that 25 people went blind or lost some sight as it focused on outpatient targets instead of follow-up ap-pointments.

An eye hospital has admitted that 25 people went blind or lost some sight as it focused on outpatient targets instead of follow-up ap-pointments.

It emerged today that Bristol Eye Hospital's waiting time targets for new outpatient appointments had been achieved at the expense of cancellation and delay in follow-up appointments.

A critical report by the public administration committee urged reform of the public service targets system amid warnings that they could be hindering reform.

Richard Harrad, clinical director of the hospital, said it had can-celled more than 1,000 appointments a month and some patients had waited 20 months longer than planned. In the past two years, 25 patients, mostly with glaucoma or diabetes, had lost vision as a result, he said.

One of them was an elderly deaf woman who became blind while her follow-up appointment for glaucoma was delayed several times.

The report said the Government should concentrate on a small number of key aims and leave other targets to be set by people on the front line.

An independent body should also be brought in to check targets were being met in a bid to stop them becoming a "political football."

The report said standards were under threat as managers concentrated more on meeting targets rather than the services they were supposed to be providing.

"In some cases creativity is being directed more to ensuring that the figures are right than to improving services," it said.

The report called for a White Paper to be published in time to influence public sector spending in 2004, setting out how the target culture would be improved.

The committee chairman, Labour MP Tony Wright, said measurement was a vital part of public service in driving improvement, but added: "There are too many targets and they do not always measure the right things."

Shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox said: "This is the clearest and most shocking example of how ministers' obsession with targets is both immoral and unethical."

A Treasury spokesman said: "Since 1998, the number of targets has been reduced and their focus improved."